Family seeks justice after man, 35, fatally shot in Winnipeg’s North End

WINNIPEG -

Family members of a man fatally shot in the North End want justice.

Anthony James Sinclair, 35, was killed last Thursday evening while making a trip to the store on his bike.

A makeshift memorial has since been set up around a tree near the intersection of Stella Ave. and McGregor St. That’s where Winnipeg police said Sinclair, a father of six, was fatally shot around 7:15 p.m. on Dec. 9.

“It’s so hard because Anthony’s the only son I had, ever since he was three years old,” said Bernadette Thomas, Sinclair’s aunt, who help raised him and thinks of Sinclair as her son.

Thomas said her daughter told her last Friday morning about what happened.

“‘Mom,’ she said. ‘Tony’s gone.’ I said, ‘What do you mean gone?’ She said, ‘He got shot,’” Thomas said. “I was so stunned I couldn’t even say anything.”

Police said members of the homicide unit continue to investigate. So far, no arrests have been announced, but investigators believe the shooting may be random.

Area resident Shandal Rich Bose said his roommates heard a gunshot and called 911.

He said the circumstances of the shooting are a concern.

“We all felt bad,” Bose said. “A person died because of a gunshot. That’s too unexpected.”

Meantime, police identified the victim of the city’s 42nd homicide of 2021.

Officers said Flora Grey, 41, was found with serious injuries in a home on College Ave. early Monday.

She was taken to hospital but died of her injuries. Detectives said a dispute between Grey and someone she knew escalated to an assault.

A 35-year-old woman has been charged with manslaughter.

It’s only been two years since a grim record of 44 homicides in 2019.

Michael Weinrath, a criminal justice professor at University of Winnipeg, sees poverty, drugs and alcohol, gangs and domestic violence as factors.

“We’ve always been high in homicides,” Weinrath said. “We need to target poverty more generally but perhaps we need more specific interventions with respect to drug addiction.”

He said most homicides involve people who know each other and that situations where a victim encounters an unknown attacker and is killed are rare.

Thomas said Sinclair was just going to the store to pick up a bottle of Pepsi and a pack of cigarettes and never made it home.

“I want justice for my son,” she said. “He didn’t have to die this way.”

Officers are asking anyone with information about Sinclair’s death to call police at 204-986-6508 or Crime Stoppers at 204-786-8477.